At March 08, 2005 9:50 AM, Kifaya said...
The Muslim Brotherhood's Conquest of EuropeWhy have Europeans been so naive? Bassam Tibi, a German professor of Syrian descent and an expert on Islam in Europe, thinks that Europeans—and Germans in particular—fear the accusation of racism.[78] Radicals in sheep's clothing have learned that they can silence almost everybody with the accusation of xenophobia. Any criticism of Muslim Brotherhood-linked organizations is followed by outcries of racism and anti-Muslim persecution. Journalists who are not frightened by these appellatives are swamped with baseless and unsuccessful but expensive lawsuits.The Dutch Grapple with Intolerance Race, religion spur immigration debate
"Islam and democracy are fully incompatible," said Wilders, as quoted by the Washington Post in February. "They will never be compatible -- not today, and not in a million years." Good luck, Fjordman (and Europe). You've really got your work cut out for you.

Today, Muslims can freely travel to the West, where they can choose to reside permanently, build Islamic places of worship, run their own religious schools, dress in their traditional apparel, publish religious material, and otherwise take full advantage of the liberal and open atmosphere prevailing in Western countries to live their faith and preserve their cultural identities. The same opportunities of self-fulfillment ought to be made available to Christians, either indigenous or coming from the outside, who already live or choose to live in predominantly Islamic domains and states.

I don't disagree with a lot of the criticism on this board against Muslim extremists, but I wonder how much of the onus is on Europe to solve this problem themselves. They are not simple victims of any kind.

Firstly, Islamic immigration is a major threat largely because the birth rate of native Europeans is so low. When Spain is registering 1.5 children per couple, we cannot sit here and blame Islamicists for being the entire problem. It seems to be that Europeans need to grab a hold of the will to live.

Secondly, it needs to be recognized that the basis of extremist Islamic rejection of the West borrows heavily from Western philosophies and Western influence. Les put out a few good links detailing the Islamo-fascist connection, and I'll add one here. But it goes beyond that. Much of the grievances against Western civilization comes on account of it's emptiness and hollowness. Take for example this charge from freemuslims.org:

Quote:

The anti-Western hatred at the heart of Islamic radicalism is an import from alien sources. In fact, it is an ideology all of its own. Ian Buruma and Avishai Margalit, professors at Bard College and Hebrew University respectively, call this ideology "Occidentalism," and argue it was born in the West itself.

The first radicals to attack liberal democracies (especially the U.S.) as "rootless, cosmopolitan, superficial, trivial, materialistic, racially mixed, fashion addicted civilizations" were nineteenth-century European revolutionaries of both the left and right. Marxists and proto-fascists such as Martin Heidegger--a sworn enemy of America--constructed the basic criticisms. Others followed, like the fascist Japanese intellectuals of the early 1940s who defined the West as "a poisonous materialist civilization," or the communist Khmer Rouge in Cambodia who slaughtered the Westernized "enemies of the people"--identified as anyone with "soft hands," or who wore glasses.

I don't want to blast multi-culturalism simply, because there is a lot of good that has come out of it, but I do want to level a charge at a lot of the post-modernist garbage that has come out of late in so-called Western philosophy. Also, as referenced above, Europe has increased in its ranks since the time of Wagner a number of intellectuals who have despised America, and more lately Israel. The reason I find this important is because both America and Israel have two things in common. Firstly, the two countries each have strong religious foundations and religious faiths continue to motivate the public life. Secondly, and this is closely related to the first, both have strong existential drives. They want to be. This is evidenced not simply by demographics, but by foreign policy. They wish to exert their power, and sometimes in unfortunate and costly ways, but nevertheless we see these states as full of life.

One other point. It's not simply that radicals are swarming into Europe already hot for jihad right off the boat. Some of these radicals have studied Western thought and rejected it. It's true, not a small portion of Islamicist extremism is being imported, but it's being sent from Europe back to Iraq and other possible theatres of Jihad in the Middle East.

Europe reaks of death. Philosophically and demographically, if happily not yet economically or quite yet culturally, Europe has real deficincies. There are vultures circling over head, and there is also a new people with a viable claim moving into the the neighborhood. Both Radical Islamicists and moderate faithful but yet law abiding (perhaps radical religious by native European standards) Muslims are coming to Europe. It's up to Europe to do something about it, and as an American, I know I would far prefer a healthy and vibrant Europe to the boiling cauldron that it is ever so gradually slipping into becoming. [/url]